The Chameleon
by TheMadDalek
Summary: A long time ago, he used to be a Professor and the greatest wizard of his generation. A long time ago, he used to be a lot of things he isn't any more but most importantly, Human. Hell, he even used to have a proper gender. Now he was something else, the embodiment of pure evil...He used to have a true name too, not a designation. A long time ago he was Harry Potter.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Notes: **

OK so this is a sort of answer to my own challenge "Apparently it CAN get worse" which is one of those challenges that have Harry becoming a non-human creature and not being able to change back. The whole idea is that he is in a shape that is not at all like his old shape and he then has to learn how to live like that.

This fic will be updated as I feel the story. When I say sort of an answer, I mean that in writing it, I may have some things that are not challenge compliant (Harry can use a bit more of his magic than the challenge parameters for example), as this is more of a fun exercise thing and I don't really want to muck up my already faulty brain too much and cause my muse to die off again. This is more to get a feel from other people on the story and see if others like the idea enough for me to really devote some time to it in the future while doing Rise. Plus I like the idea and think I will have fun doing it.

It also helps me not get burnt out on Rise, but it will still only be updated every so often; Rise is first.

ALSO: My Harry will not be turning human again so if you're looking for a Harry finds a way back/is fixed story, you're in the wrong place. The challenge pretty much already states Harry can't change his shape to human again but I thought I would put this here again in case it wasn't clear.

This fic will be extremely AU in many cases. Although I will try to follow the timelines for DW/TW as best as I can when it comes to main events that aren't changed by my mucking about.

Pairings: None really planned aside from Harry's long term pairing (Jack Harkness) though something will probably happen eventually for others. I'm not sure what label to use for Harry but really this version of him kinda starts off Het like canon but after long enough in the DW universe, he eventually just stops caring about sex/gender/species of the person and does what he feels like. His pairing with Jack isn't a 'oh it's true love and no one else could compare' type either, its more like Harry and Jack both have very long lives and no matter when or where or with whom they are, they eventually come back to each other. It's a permanent relationship in that they never stop being together, but they don't stay together all the time; it doesn't mean they don't care for each other, they just can't stay in one spot for a very long and both have different paths to walk in life so tagging along isn't always an option.

Felt like I had to point this out before I got a review about how Harry and Jack were cheating on each other when being with someone else once they were actually a couple.

Warnings: Mostly language and gore, some body horror, and violence, though there will be some other themes that may be triggering to some people. A bit of adult suggestive content, this is a DW/TW fic and Jack is certainly making an appearance.

There will be same sex couples and references to activities of same sex/het relationships

but no delving into such activities. Non-human/human pairings (ie;*cough* Jack *cough*/anything, Harry/whoever, Harry/Jack) but again intimate acts are not shown.

Also spoilers for all seven books of HP but not the epilogue or The Cursed Child, both of which didn't happen in this AU. Also spoilers for most of the Doctor Who series up to the first series/season of the 13th Doctor. And some spoilers for Torchwood (the episodes I'm familiar with). I will be covering most of new who and some classic. Most classic episodes will be done in flashbacks, so that the important parts that were changed from Canon can be addressed without rehashing the whole episode - some of which I don't remember much of - and can keep the rewrite effect down to a minimum. Some new who episodes will be done this way too, as this is Harry's story, not The Doctor/Whoever of the Whoniverse adventures with Harry tossed in. There will be a few Classic Who/New Who episodes that are covered in 'real time' instead of flashbacks but they may or may not contain the Doctor.

Delgado Master will feature heavily in this fic, so far as to use him in episodes that another actor had played the Master in, mainly because Roger Delgado is my favorite version of the character. Aaaand I may toss DW/TW canon events completely out of the window at some point if I feel that the story is moving better that way.

(I can only afford a few of the classic serials right now so most will just be references, as although I watched quite a few of them, I was VERY small at the time and only the Dalek episodes and the ones with the Master really stuck. I've not had the pleasure of any of the Big Finish audios so unfortunately nothing from them will be in here.)

**Disclaimer:**

I don't own anything to do with the Harry Potter universe, at all, nope.

I also don't own Doctor Who or anything related to Doctor Who in anyway, which also covers all spin offs.

I don't own any other movies, books, TV series or games that may be mentioned here either.

Rating:

M - Just to be safe, language and gore are a sure thing, though Jack eventually becomes a main character too which means suggestive themes abound!

Also: I'm forgoing a Beta on this so spelling and grammar mistakes a-ho! If you find something that needs to be fixed, give me a hoot... Again, chapters for this story are not a priority, Rise comes first in updates, but I may do one chapter of this one for every two I do of Rise if enough people are interested in it.

Summary:

A long time ago, he used to be a Professor. A long time ago, he used to be the greatest wizard of his generation. A long time ago, he used to be a lot of things he isn't any more: Unspeakable, Family member, Best friend, Animagus, Mentor, Godfather, Partner...Human. Hell, he even used to have a proper gender. Now he was something else, the embodiment of pure evil in the eyes and minds of many civilizations in this new universe.

He used to have a true name too. Not a designation coupled with a false identity.

A long time ago he was called Harry Potter.

The Chameleon:

Chapter one:

Another loud and powerful crack ripped through the previously silent air, loud echoes of it sent many a sharp pulse of pain through his already abused ears; the lancing throb signaled the start of what Harry James Potter knew was going to be one hell of a major headache. Everything concerning the current mission had been going so well, too well he had thought, just before a bright light and an earthquake had sent everything he knew into utter chaos.

'And that is normally the time when things go pear shaped. Right after the thought of "all is well".' he mused, as the screams of people no longer in the area he inhabited still played through his mind as if the event was rippling back through time. He was falling, twisting, being pulled into a place he had no wish to be. He had a grip on someone who was also falling, being pulled and yanked into that same place.

Harry's muddled thoughts suddenly shifted tracks, running further back into a conversation he had with one of his best friends a while ago. It was when he told her he had been selected for the project that was currently falling down around his ears in a rather spectacularly public fashion.

*Start Flashback*

"Hello the house!"

Harry's joyful voice bellowed over the normal supper time din of the Burrow as he stepped onto the front porch. Sudden excited screeches from the inside gave him very little warning before two red-headed missiles - one large and one very small - collided with him, almost knocking him flat onto his rear; he wound up in a squatted stance just to keep his feet.

"Harry! You've been gone for ages, where have you been hiding yourself?." came the sharp command from the older of the two once she had released him and stepped away.

Harry smiled and looked up at her from his half crouched position while still trying to keep his balance during the onslaught of pushing from the little one at his legs. His mind started to wander as it always did when he was faced with the family he considered his yet was still so separate from. Molly was looking quite well these past few years now that peace was restored to pretty much all of the wizarding war affected areas of Europe. She had taken it upon herself in those early days afterward to care for all of the remaining Order, and those now homeless children like Harry, and had been very much the perfect picture of a 'mother hen' with all her smothering.

It's now over a decade since the war ended and those people she had taken in weren't children anymore or homeless for that matter. Most had lives and families of their own, though that didn't stop Molly from acting the parent over them still. This was mainly why Harry was 'hiding away' as she liked to put it, so that he could think for more than five minutes in silence before Molly would come around and start worrying over his post war 'moping'. Harry didn't mope anymore, there was nothing to mope about, Molly just wanted to be useful and figured that since Harry didn't have anyone to mother him, then she should be it. Her calling his quiet time moping just gave her an excuse to offer others as to why she was always on his case.

As Harry's mind drifted he tried to remove from his legs one of the many little red-headed terrors that had popped up over the years. With all the surviving Weasley children out starting their families there were quite a few of the little devils about. Having not been in touch often with the rest of the family due to work and Godfather duties, nor really paying attention to the pictures Ron showed him when they did meet up after work, left a regretful Harry without a clue which one this child belonged to; its not that he didn't care, really he did, but there was only so much he could take in when he was busy with some project and Ron insisted on doing the catch up thing when Harry's brain wasn't engaged for it. In many ways Ron was as bad as his mother in that he always chose the most inopportune moment to try and socialize, making it a predictable habit of his to drop some important tidbit of information while Harry was distracted and so although Harry knew Ron and Hermione had two kids themselves with a third on the way and knew the names of their children and quite a bit about them in general, he didn't remember the names or the ages of all of the children of the rest of the clan.

Most of the Weasley kids had moved off to live elsewhere once they were grown and only met up on the holidays, something Harry had pointedly been ignoring invitations to since he turned twenty to not only keep out of the chaos that was the clan when everybody came to the burrow, but because he was normally occupied elsewhere with his Godson during the hols. This then resulted in him being quite behind on the who married who aside from Bill, Ron and of course Hermione. He was glad he wasn't so reclusive that he didn't know basic things like George had one child with a possibility for another in the future, and both Percy and Bill had a brood of two and four respectively. Ginny was with Dean and although they weren't married, they had two themselves who were sure to be Quidditch players once they got old enough to ride a broom without an adult on it with them. But the fine details were lost in the haze of being overworked, sent abroad on long stints for said work, and Ron's perfect way of catching Harry at a bad time.

The only one Harry really knew almost everything about was his own Godson Teddy. Harry had promised not to be the Godfather Sirius had been, he would do better, and so most of his free time was devoted to Teddy rather than the Weasley family gatherings or just meeting up with a couple of them for more than just tea. He loved them dearly, really he did, but they didn't need Harry in order to be happy; Teddy on the other hand did. Now that Teddy was old enough to really understand the world around him, he needed his Godfather to take him places and show him things that others only dream of seeing or doing. He needed a male influence in his life that wasn't the family house elf who enjoyed swearing and insulting people under his breath. He needed toys and pets and long weeks away from home so that he knew he was loved by more than just his Grandmother. He needed a positive role model to come and stay with him and help him keep sane when Andromeda had one of her frequent paranoia fits and would lock Teddy, Harry and herself away in the house for months on end out of fear of loosing her last link to her daughter to some perceived misfortune.

And it's not as if Harry's friends didn't know Teddy or interact with him at all, it's that they weren't as invested in him due to having their own very full lives; Teddy wasn't their responsibility, he had people who cared for him, so they didn't go out of their way to visit him. Only Ron and Hermione bothered to do more than just occasionally visit, and Harry had even gotten them to promise to take his place in Teddy's life should anything happen to him that would prevent his being there for the young man.

Harry kept telling himself he was in the right every time Hermione would say something about the family and Harry wouldn't know what she was talking about, kept reminding himself that he wasn't a terrible person for choosing Teddy and by extension, Andy, over everyone else. But it was hard to keep the guilt of straying so far away from those old bonds from rising up in him when faced with just how little he knew his friends and their families now.

Shaking himself free of his thoughts, Harry finally answered Molly. "I've been busy at work, actually. It's partially why I came here tonight, I need to see Hermione for a bit. Is she in, or Ron even?" He chuckled while he wrestled the tiny hands from his trousers, grinning when the child darted away and vanished in the house not long after he managed to separate it from his person. It happened so quickly that he wasn't sure even what gender his attacker had been.

"Ron's not in yet I'm afraid." Molly started, watching Harry start to re-situate his coat, "But Hermione is in the kitchen, got here not a moment ago. Will you stay long?" She asked hopefully, reaching out and tugging Sirius' - now his - coat back into place from where it had been rumpled in the extreme hugging.

Harry shook his head and gently motioned her hands away from the coat as he answered "No, I have to be back in the Department before seven, which only gives me less than an hour and a quarter before I must be leaving. Although my work day is over, I've been asked to come back in for a bit to help out with something. I'll probably be too tired to come back out here tonight.".

He pulled out his wand and waved it at the wrinkles in his clothes, glad that even though he and Ginny never worked out as a couple, she was still willing to teach him 'handy skills' that he could use until he found a woman to 'properly' care for him. As a matter of fact she was very happy to teach him all these skills and more; Harry had the impression she thought he might swing the other way and she was determined to make sure he was capable of looking sharp enough to attract one of the better looking males of that persuasion, instead of just the ones who really could do with some tips from Lockhart, even in the man's current state. Harry wasn't bothered with it, even though he didn't swing that way, or at least he had never had such an urge that he remembered, it's just that he was absolutely pants at romantic anything and so didn't waste any time on such things. Later, once he was less busy, he would try to find someone, and if it was a man instead of a woman, he promised himself not to get too hung up on the fact that had been looking in all the wrong places before. Obviously.

Molly frowned a bit at his answer but allowed him to make his excuses like she always did these days and led him into the house proper while calling for Hermione. The Matriarch then headed into the kitchen to finish up whatever was cooking, patting Harry on the shoulder and giving him a soft smile as she left. The smells of roasting meat, baking potatoes and the unmistakable tang of onions being cut filled the air and brought a sense of peace to Harry that he had been lacking as of late.

"Harry! I didn't think you were going to visit!" Hermione said in surprise as she exited the kitchen and spotted him standing near the cat hair infested couch. Her arms darted upward while walking into the sitting room and, gathering Harry up into a nearly bone crushing hug, smiled when he protested at the re-wrinkling of his favorite coat. More loud crashing and screaming from upstairs made her smile even wider at the flinches they pulled out of a worried Harry. He had no idea who was here today and how many they had brought along with them, though judging by the fact that there weren't any responsible adult voices shouting back at the screamers from upstairs, he could probably safely assume it was Ron and Hermione's kids and whoever's that was who had attacked him outside earlier. Hopefully none of them were in a pranking mood today.

"I wasn't going to but they stopped me when I was packing up for the day and gave me some news I just had to share immediately. I do have to go back around seven though. They've asked for some help on something unrelated to the news I'm about to give you, and I'm the one who drew the short straw when people started coming up with excuses as to why it shouldn't be them." he said, plopping down on a sofa that was now free of cat hair thanks to Hermione's quick thinking and wand waving; seriously the amount of cats that visited this place with all the new cat owners in the family now was ridiculous, they could start selling the fur as nesting material at this point and make a killing.

A pillow moved about right before Hermione joined him on the couch and she picked up a small black and white kitten from under it before continuing the motions of taking a seat next to Harry. "Oh? What have they got for you now?" she asked, her face set into a curious expression.

Harry sighed explosively and gave a wry grin "Well, it is a bit of a long story, but the quick of it is that they found some sort of rip in the fabric of time and space somewhere in Wales and apparently its been tossing out odd objects, some really advanced tech and even some seemingly temporally displaced people." Harry said, rubbing his face with both his hands while he remembered the long conversation about the tear and what that means for wizard kind. Again most of the government wanted to stick their heads in the sand at the strange thing that was encroaching on their perfect little world, but the Department had some level headed folk working there this time and they at least wanted to poke at the strange and unusual first before following the sheep mind of the rest of the group if it got too out there for them to handle. Though Harry did wonder what would be considered too out there if a group of Roman soldiers from around the time of Christ just appearing out of nowhere didn't phase them.

"They want someone who deals well with the 'weird and horrible' on the case. Seems strange that this tear has been active for a long while yet the DoM has only just said anything about it. Almost like they've either not noticed it before now, which I think is Crup Shit seeing how volatile it is, or they've hit a major snag in their work with it and need outside help fast. Either works for me as even though it's not exactly my branch of the Department, it does get me out of the office." he laughed, taking the kitten from Hermione and setting it in his lap, where it immediately sought out the buttons on his shirt. A few more screams from upstairs had Hermione turning toward the staircase and shouting to use their 'indoor voices please' before she looked back at Harry.

"A tear in the fabric of...? What in Merlin's name are they going to do with something like that? What kind of spells would you even use on one safely? And while I'm on about it, why select you at all? I get you're a national hero and that would give whatever team working on this thing the extra boost they needed for their goals...But, Harry, even you know that such a project isn't your area of expertise. You're more of the 'rush in and stop the badguys' kind, not someone who is good with delicate..er..." she trailed off and pursed her lips together, turning away and frowning over at the fire in the hearth with a slightly embarrassed air about her.

Harry shrugged in good humor, not at all offended at her words and quipped "I'm very good with thinking on the fly and proven to be difficult to put down. Pretty sure its to do with something that came out of the tear recently, or maybe some idiot in the crew tossed something back and hell is brewing." Harry shrugged, batting the kitten's paw away from a loose thread on the worn shirt he had decided to wear that day in preparation for a messy field op that didn't pan out, he wound up coming back to the office after only twenty minutes out and about Greater London.

"And it's the Department of Mysteries, what spells do you think they will use on it? Probably try to tame the time travel aspect or some such, you know how they get when there is experimenting to do. In the name of Magic and Science should be their motto." Harry said, looking amused.

Hermione paused in her thoughts and looked askance at him in worry, "Yes, I do know" her voice suddenly filled with fear and her face showed extreme discomfort "Oh, Harry. You will be careful, won't you?" She looked him straight in the eyes now, there was a gleam in them that Harry hadn't witnessed since they had gone on the Horcrux Hunt. Well that wasn't true, a similar one would show up if the word 'research' was even so much as breathed around her. Harry opened his mouth to speak but then closed it with an amused hum when the woman across from him waved her hands around frantically as if to dismiss any answer he might be trying to think up.

"Actually, you know what? Don't answer that, I think I'll have to help you in order to make sure you're alright. There is no way I'm leaving you to Them alone." The way she said 'them' was so stressed and defined, he was sure that she probably wrote it down in italics and capitalized when she had to refer to that branch of government on paper without naming names. Even though the DoM was one huge department, it had many different branches or divisions in it. Them was the top layer of the Department as a whole and both Harry (Combat and Weapon Research) and Hermione (Spell Crafting and Enchantments Research) hated that part of the DoM with a passion.

"Well if you think that would help." he said lamely. "I don't think they will approve, though we may both of us be in the same Department, there is still a bit of a jump between your division and mine." he added just to sooth her.

'And not very much help will be wanted by them in this endeavor. From what I've heard about the project, its obvious the Muggles already know about this tear even though no one can do a damn thing about it except hide what comes through. And They want to prove we don't need Muggles to figure this thing out, and Muggleborns are still just a step up from Muggle in their eyes' Harry added silently, so as not to bring Hermione into another one of her 'we are all magical' rants that she tended to go on when such ideas were voiced in her hearing range.

Hermione sighed heavily at his tired expression. "I know that, Harry, really I do. But I figure it will be unofficial help. I just want to look things over, make sure those idiots don't screw something up. They can always find a new tear as I'm sure there are more, but I can't just get another Harry Potter to replace my friend if something goes wrong."

She snatched up the kitten from where it had tried to slink back under the pillows, Harry's petting hands having stilled a while ago during the conversation. She placed the kitten on her chest to cuddle it and gathered herself, biting her lower lip out of habit.

"And if they complain, you can always say your girlfriend or boyfriend threatened to spell you into the basement forever unless there was a more, well trained-in-the-Muggle-technology eye to watch over things. I might even be able to send someone who knows what they're doing to oversee it."

The way she stated it, so simple and share, it took him a moment to realize she was still a bit miffed at him; that he didn't actually have such a person to spell him in place when he got a stupid idea in his head was a conversation they had quite often, and he really didn't want this one to dissolve into one of those arguments about how he failed at being in a romantic relationship. And it was plainly obvious from her choice of words that she had been talking to Ginny again about Harry's possible sexual leanings...Joy.

"Yes, well, They know I don't have anyone, which...now that I think about it." he trailed off, looking into the fire in dawning comprehension, "Is why they asked me." Harry finished in a near whisper, not out of fear, but out of anger.

Being the last of a family line meant that unless he willed everything to someone - and he had, the whole Weasley clan and his Godson, Teddy, would be getting his stuff - then upon his death it would default to the nearest blood kin or to the government, if the blood kin was unable or unwilling to accept. Harry had obviously been singled out by the Purebloods as revenge for not helping to scrap the new laws that would restrict their hold over the Ministry and the Muggle issue. Many had approached him with bribes and 'knowing smiles' when they spoke of the Muggles and the Wizard's need to keep them away and the Muggleborns as well, who want to change the traditions of magic because they saw them as dated.

They thought him of the same mind due to the horror story that was his treatment by the Dursleys, being outed in the paper a week prior by a 'worried' friend that wasn't sure this new Muggle law was a good idea. 'More like an enemy that got hold of the information through digging, and now they are making sure I'm at the front to take the fall if this dangerous rip decides to blow.' The thought ignited the hot sort of anger that Harry's mother was well known for.

'And if I die in the process, then my money would have gone to them and they could line as many pockets as they needed in order to change the laws again. Too bad for them that I fear being killed by a still free Death Eater and already got my affairs pretty much in order.' he thought savagely, shaking his head and standing up once he noticed the time.

Hermione blinked at the quick movement, obviously thinking that her friend's head shake was a polite end of the conversation, and then sighed when she too noticed the time.

"I'll see what I can do on my end, Harry, you just watch yourself and double check everything by me first before you do it. And if anything goes wrong, you get the hell out of there." Hermione rose to her feet as well, hugging him as she muttered "Promise me, Harry" into his coat. Harry made a noise that he hoped she would take as one of agreement, being unable to voice even a small 'yes' with her hugging him as tightly as she was.

When she finally let go he pulled back and nodded, eyes sincere as he uttered "I promise."

*End Flashback*

*The Present*

'Yup, that worked out really well, didn't it? Why don't you make a few more promises you can't keep, eh, Potter?'

Harry couldn't figure out what happened to set the whole thing off, everything had been going absolutely perfectly, the tear was fine, just a blip on the stolen Muggle equipment they enchanted to help observe the thing. The damn temporal tear was just quietly buzzing away and not being threatening at all. The most it had done all day was two hours earlier it had happily thrown out an odd, green trunked and orange leafed tree of unknown origins, that was covered in equally odd multicolored fruits that smelled of bananas but tasted like maple syrup with a touch of something unidentifiable, and yes someone had been stupid enough to eat one to find out. The medium sized tree had still been covered in large amounts of purple soil around it's dark green roots and appeared to have been pulled up in its entirety. There were even little blue and green bugs that were definitely not from earth all over the slick bark; Harry thought they might be ants from how they interacted with each other.

Then suddenly, ten minutes ago, the machines started malfunctioning and the tear vanished for unknown reasons from the sensors. Nothing registered anywhere within a forty meter area in all directions and an invisible and intangible bubble of radio dead space just popped up over their operation point. Everyone outside the bubble was still getting readings of some kind and were shouting at the team near the tear that something was most certainly happening. Then the spells that were suppose to allow the DoM team a better look at what the tear was doing to the world around it, backfired and killed two people immediately, causing an earthquake that the rest of the world surely felt in some way. It all came to a head right after that when the screams of the damned that were too close to the tear when the spells backfired echoed strangely around the area, as if they were a recording on a repeated loop, fading in and out rapidly. Everything seemed blurred and warped within the bubble, now a visible bubble due to the distortions, like looking through water that was being hammered by a heavy rain.

No more than five seconds later the Emergency Recall Ward, which would portkey the team back to the clearing they launched from upon sensing danger, activated and also failed...spectacularly. The result was both truly horrifying and funny in that "it only happens to you" kind of way.

Oh the recall worked, to an extent, in that it did it's job in taking the team back to where it came from, but who ever designed the ward forgot to factor in that the team could possibly be MOVING at the time of recall, and due to the strange waves of quickly displaced air from the 'Event', the affected were moving fast as they were tossed away from the epicenter.

One part of the team, which comprised of a few Aurors and one Unspeakable, went "home" in a nasty shower of very wet gore that spread on the ground in a fine mist on this end. The screaming coming from the clearing on the other side of the trees let Harry know they got a bit more than mist over there. The other part of the team, which was Harry, the two now dead-from-the-explosion Aurors and one technician Hermione sent, were left behind close to the core of the 'Event'. The technician was suppose to handle the many devices they were using to make sure everything was safe, which he did do quite well until this all started, and only survived the explosion due to his fast reflexes.

The next few moments were filled with Harry pulling the much older man through the gauntlet of near invisible anomalies that started showing up around them in short spurts; devastating anything they came in contact with for more than a second. They looked like vertical puddles of water shifting in size and clarity, rippling like the surface of a lake when a pebble is skipped across it. An ominous low hum emitted from them that also had a soft crackling background noise like electricity or a small fire.

The sight of burnt grass and mangled metal that got shat out of one of the fading anomalies was enough to cause both Harry and the technician with him to stick their hands into their pockets and start frantically rubbing the stones the secondary Recall Wards were installed on.

The user's magic was suppose to enable these Personal Recall Stones and have them act like single user portkeys, just in case the team was separated too far apart for the Emergency Recall Ward to grab up as a whole. Each member had a Stone and it could only be activated by being rubbed quickly in a hand, to ensure it wasn't accidentally turned on when the wearer put something in the pocket with it.

And of course it was right about the time that the secondary Recall Wards activated that Harry's companion made a misstep in his backpedaling, pulling himself and Harry into the path of one of the more obviously violent temporal anomalies; a bird had gotten pulled into it moments earlier and came out the other side as tiny and new as if it had just hatched, but just as the bird was about to hit the ground, it inverted in a sick way, seemingly turning inside out before falling apart in a manner that suggested a sharp knife had cut it up.

And that's where Harry was right now, watching what was left of his team, the tech, fall backward in slow motion toward that same dangerous anomaly. Harry was still gripping the man by the front of his coat, the only place he could grab quickly when the whole thing went to shit, and was being pulled along with the other man into what was surely their death. The smell of metal, blood, sick, trees, animals and human waste...all flooded the area near the anomaly as the two were almost sucked right into it.

In the instant that their bodies almost hit the anomaly, something else happened, the air around the two wizards moved oddly and they were both suddenly pulled in a different direction, toward the center of the original tear. Harry could only just make out the shouts of horror from the other teams outside the bubble as they notified each other that the tear was expanding rapidly, sucking in things closest to it and spitting out things from somewhere else entirely. Both the tech and Harry himself were snatched up in the tear and for just a moment, Harry thought he saw another version of this very part of Wales being laid over his vision of the current catastrophe, only it wasn't a bunch of panicking wizards he got a glimpse of.

It was a group of frantic Muggles with big black cars and important looking flashing lights, and a man wearing a blue pinstriped suit, red shoes of some kind and a pair of wire rimmed glasses, was standing just outside the bubble, one arm raised with a bit of glowing equipment in his hand, squinting at them as if he wasn't sure he was actually seeing anything or if it was just a trick of the light. Then a sharp yet incomplete jerk at Harry's navel told him the Stones were trying to take them back to the meeting point, but were unable to finish due to the strength of the vortex that had grabbed them and the alternate Wales was pulled away from them.

'Oh Teddy, I'm so sorry'

Harry's whole world became nothing but an alternating blue and white light so bright it burned his eyes even when closed, unintelligible musical voices shouted and an unidentifiable howling sound so loud his ears felt like they would burst. And under the howling was a beat, some strange noise banging out four times with a metallic sort of ring to it, echoing softly under all the other sounds being thrown at them. It was also quite cold but not a cold Harry was used to, it was bone deep and thrummed with a throbbing ache and a piercing, ripping pain crawled throughout his entire being like an army of very angry and very large ants. Something was very wrong with this type of cold but Harry couldn't place what exactly screamed wrong about it. The scents from the anomaly previous were now so overpowering he was sure his sense of smell was ruined forever. He felt like his very being was melting in this place, being pulled apart slowly bit by bit and not being put back together again.

In all the event felt like it lasted for days but perhaps only a few seconds had passed before everything just stopped.

There was no sound, no light, no smells, no tastes and nothing to touch, but more importantly, there appeared to be a sudden lack of air... And an almighty pressure was pressing in on him from every direction along with that terrible cold. But then even that stopped, he had no connection to his body or so it felt like as he now had no input from it. Harry wasn't even sure he existed at this moment, his body was nothing, his thoughts were all he had, all he was. He could feel the other one's mind, the one he came here with, also moving with him, riding along and touching everything. Harry was so much more than before, everywhere all at once, every-when all at once, his magic and his thoughts spreading out to all of time, the other doing the same, until there was nothing and Harry's thoughts became slow, the other faded from his mind, and finally everything seized up. Magic screamed and Harry wasn't anything at this moment, he was nowhere and no-when, there was no Harry.

Thought slowly returned, trickling in like determined oil through a strainer, sluggish and thick. The feeling of something other worldly watching him tugged at the little bit of his awareness that was starting up again, like a computer being rebooted after a terrible crash; this other wasn't the one that had come with him, this one was old and new, bigger and smaller. It too stretched out and touched everything and nothing all at once, but it did so in such a way as to suggest it was always like this, it had no other way of being but that it could be something else if it wanted.

It was curious, Harry didn't know how he knew this, how he knew it was a living thing of at all, only that he knew deep down in his very soul that he wasn't alone here and was being regarded with a sense of startled fascination. It, whatever it was, pulled on him, tugging him away from wherever this empty place of nothing but thought was. He felt the other now too, the one he had been holding what felt like so long ago and yet only a moment ago. They were both of them now in the grasp of the curious thing, being toyed with as if this great awareness were nothing but a very old child that had found a new pair of pets to play with.

Then it threw them away, not because it was bored, but because it was curious as to what would happen, Harry felt this, knew that it wasn't malicious. They drifted as nothing but thought for a long while, going farther away from the thing in this no-place, feeling it still watching them with amusement and wonder.

End Chapter one.

Long AN: Right, so this was sitting in the same folder as the one with my notes for Rise and I decided to post it to see if anyone was interested. Unlike Rise, this one is gonna be kinda slow paced, in that there will be some chapters with a lot dialog between characters and almost nothing else (time passing wise) going on. This one is gonna be more of a 'Character Discovery' story, in that the characters involved will be doing a lot of self discovery and the plot (once it kicks off) will be centered more on how they learn to cope with the life they now lead and live it rather than running about fixing things as I've seen most fics like this go. Doesn't mean there won't be awesome detailed fights or action or the characters fixing things at all, just not in your face stuff all the time.

I want this to be the 'left behind' kind of story, where the characters I use are living in the aftermath of whatever happens instead of running away with the Doctor and becoming the fifth wheel of the TARDIS group.

I've not found a whole lot of stories where Harry has his own adventures outside of being the Doctor's companion, he's always tagging along and seems to be the goto when doing a Martha Jones fill in, nothing wrong with those really! It's just that it seems nothing changes when people add Harry in those situations, and he barely makes use of himself at all except to add another person to the equation to replace a unliked companion. Some, however, do actually use Harry very well character wise, but they still fall into rehashing the Doctor's adventures too closely to canon instead of having magic be useful in certain areas that Harry probably would have had an 'Ah ha!' moment because it would have been very close to his own misadventures as a kid. These would have had some effect on the plot.

This is mostly pointed at fics that say they have a more learned/'badass' Harry in it but he seems like although he supposedly knows this stuff, he conveniently forgets (when he wouldn't in some of those obvious bits) just so the episode stays pretty canon and the author doesn't have to figure out a new path for the timeline. I mean everyone knows he has magic so that's not the reason he isn't using it, unless his magic isn't working for some reason, he should be using it! He's a wizard! I don't mind reading fics like these so long as it's pointed out that not a whole lot changes or whatever it is affecting Harry is gonna go on for a bit, instead of tagging on in the summery "I wonder what great changes having a wizard on the TARDIS will bring about?!" like yeah nothing much so far and you've done series 1-3 already, cheers for that XD I mean if you're gonna do Doomsday, how hard is it to save Rose with magic if Harry is in the room? Or plan for something bad happening if you've had a 'bad feeling' through half the episode XD

But enough of that!

Now I wanna do a** fic recommend** here of a really fantastic story because I'm enjoying it greatly (its still getting updates) and think some others would too:

**Visited by a Doctor by Tangerine-Alert** here on FF. I can't do a good preview of it, just can't do it justice. Go check it out if you enjoy a good HP/DW crossover where Harry has his own path and it just so happens that the Doctor Who verse keeps crossing it at the most inconvenient times. Even this doesn't scratch what the story is like. It's got loads of adventure, some comical bits and is really well written so go read it!

Also, if you know of any good crossovers of HP/DW or HP/TW, point em out! Always looking for reading material to help with my muse blocks. I don't mind reading a good Slash fic if it's done tastefully and not just an excuse for smut-fest. For example, I know a few TW fics pair Harry and Jack together (which I'm doing here sort of) or Harry and Doctor or even Jack and Doctor with Harry just kinda awkwardly hanging in the background like "Yeah, er, we gonna go travel to that water planet now? Er, no? Okay, I'll just go make some tea, let you two eat each other's faces off.."

When the relationships get in the way of enjoying the plot, that's when I have an issue, no matter if its Het/Slash/Bi/Whatever.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer:

I don't own anything to do with the Harry Potter universe, at all, nope.

I also don't own Doctor Who or anything related to Doctor Who in anyway, which also covers all spinoffs.

I don't own any other movies, books, tv series or games that may be mentioned here either.

Chapter Two:

Then everything but the air suddenly rushed back to the confused and thoroughly terrified wizard that was Harry Potter. Everything hurt in a muted way and that was the first sign he had a body again, he was something again! He still had that strange feeling of being stretched too thin and knowing too much yet nothing at all and the howling sound was still ringing in his head but the noise at least was fading with each beat of his heart. The awareness from before was gone too, but Harry didn't know if that was because it was really gone or because he just couldn't sense it anymore now that he had a body.

He could see again and his surroundings had changed dramatically. Where once there had been a beautiful Welsh country side with people and grass and sunshine and AIR, there was now a dark hallway made of metal and lined with brightly flashing mauve lights that practically screamed "SOMETHING HAS GONE HORRIBLY WRONG PLEASE RECTIFY THE SITUATION". At one end of the hall was a large panel that might have been a door or maybe it was just a fancy decoration. Turning his head to look behind him showed only a large and very sealed door with another flashing light on it and a keypad next to it with a screen displaying a giant mauve 'X' in a box.

Harry tried to cast a Bubble Head charm so that he could at least get his brain working to figure out how to survive in what was obviously a vacuum, but it didn't work. The spell didn't even make a bubble. He tried again and got a weak film over his head that dissipated quickly. His wand felt sluggish in his hand as if some part of it was not wanting to cooperate and preform the spell. His own magic seemed tired and weak.

The suffocating, freezing wizard belatedly noticed that the reason he couldn't feel anything solid around him was because he was floating in the middle of the hall, so it wasn't only a vacuum, but a zero-gravity one. His technician companion was there too, floating not more than five feet in front of him but nearer a wall, and didn't seem to be fairing any better in the magic department.

He kept trying to take in a breath and repeatedly casting a Bubble Head charm, just as correctly as Harry, but it obviously wasn't filling with anything either because he was still gasping futilely even when he managed that weak bubble. The mauve light was reflecting his frightened face back at Harry and he could see that the other man's wide eyes seemed to bulge from their sockets. Harry was sure his own were doing the same from the pain and stress he was feeling in them. Harry's body felt very wrong, being both squished and pulled outward at the same time, though Harry couldn't tell if it was the environment they were now in that was responsible or if it was left over from their trip through the tear. He was sure the other man must feel the same way if his expression was anything to go on.

Harry didn't bother to use any more magic, any spells he might use himself the other man was already trying and failing at. And it didn't make any sense to wave his wand frantically about and have everything he used be nothing but wasted energy; he was already wasting most of it by gasping. They both needed air badly by now, black spots and fading vision were becoming stronger and Harry knew they didn't have long before they would black out and then die.

A blue button on a wall nearby seemed to call to the older man and he stopped casting his spells and instead kicked off from the wall he was close to, propelling himself across the hall and several feet from where Harry himself rolled around uselessly in his own effort of trying to get to a lit up panel on the opposite wall. The tech hit the button hard, and the ground rushed up to meet the both of them, bringing the gravity first, then blessed air and finally the lights. The room heated rapidly but the feeling of being too cold to live and the squished insides lingered.

With the hard impact of his back to the floor, it took Harry a moment to realize that the environment's sound also returned with the air, starting off soft at first before flooding around them like a river that broke through a dam. A klaxon of the likes that Harry had never heard before - and he's seen tons of telly - blared loudly from a speaker on the ceiling under one of the quickly rotating mauve lights.

The young man greedily gulped down as much oxygen as he could fit into his lungs while he took in the mostly empty hallway, his fuzzy brain was under the impression that if he filled his lungs up he would be fine if the room lost power again. Harry felt like the exposed areas of skin on his body were tight, like someone had wrapped frozen bandages over those spots and pulled them until it was difficult to move. Though the more he warmed up, the better his movement. Glancing over at a slightly raised hand, Harry could see something glistening on the surface of his skin. A quick look over at the other wizard proved he was in the same boat. He was covered in a thin layer of frost and was taking in weaker shuddering breaths while waving his wand around in a pattern Harry didn't recognize.

"I came through first" were the first words he spoke in a harsh gasping whisper, nodding his head in a vague way that was suppose to indicate the room as a whole. Harry gave a small nod of understanding as a reply, too busy sucking in air to do so orally. A soft whisper had him tilting his head to better hear.

"I'm Mike by the way, didn't get to introduce myself before shit went pear-shaped"

Harry gave the man, Mike, a pained grin and breathed "Harry" back at him before rolling over to his stomach.

The mauve lights continued along with the klaxon but they were soon joined by a computerized voice that spoke in a language neither wizard was familiar with, sounding more like harsh barking than true words. But the warning was clear in the ominous tone it crackled out.

"What happened...Where are we?" asked a bewildered Mike, coughing heavily while attempting to stand on jelly like legs.

Harry shrugged still laying on his stomach to catch his breath "Did...did you feel, that curious other presence. In the no-place?" Harry finally gasped out, slowing crawling now over to a wall and used it to help push off the ground with his wobbly arms. He managed to stand on shaking legs and turned to face toward what he hoped was a window and not a randomly placed mirror in the hallway.

"I remember feeling small and watched, like a mouse being eyed by a lion." was all Mike replied with on the subject.

Harry couldn't see clearly from this angle with all the lights inside and the lack of it outside, but he was pretty sure that was space out there, what with the spectacular view of a far distant planet or tiny moon, one side of it lit by an unseen star that was probably on the other side of the whatever structure they were in. It was also not Earth or any other planet or moon he recognized from the few NASA photos he had seen.

There was also - according to the flickers of reflected light from the inside to the out - tons of floating rubble that probably belonged to whatever it was they were on. Many of the bits were banging off the hull and now that his brain was kicking in, that was quite a mind breaker. A space ship, they were on a broken space ship, floating almost without purpose in space while being pelted by the ship's own parts. Harry was positive it was a ship and not a space station because of the fact that it was moving rather quickly.

Either way it was falling apart and what the hell was that sound?

*thunk!*

Something small, orange and glowing just hit a part of the ship that Harry imagined would be like a wing on an aircraft and vanished into it. Another hit a floating piece and punched right through it, passing out to the other side without slowing down...It took a few more of these orange balls of light going through the visible parts of the craft for Harry to realize what he was observing.

'ah, crap...meteors.' Harry pulled away from the window he was occupying and turned toward Mike, who was gazing in stupefied wonder out of another window a little further down the hall. "We're in space, I can't believe it. We're actually in fucking space." he whispered at Harry, still in awe of their surroundings.

One of the little hot rocks ripped through the wall, popping a hole in the ship between where Harry and his new friend were standing, ripping out a lot of important looking bits before continuing down into and through the floor, possibly to the next deck if there was such a thing. Air rushed out of the hole in the wall for a second or two before a blue light flashed over the hole and the air stayed put. 'Huh, like a Star Trek shield.' he thought in a daze, shaking his head and turning to watch another hot rock repeat the entry somewhere behind Mike and yet another entered right between them but this time higher up.

Both men in perfect harmony looked at the hole, then down at the rock and then back up at each other for all of three seconds before deciding that the maybe-a-door at the end of the hall seemed better than standing here in the hallway that was starting to look a lot like melting Swiss cheese of the holey type. With a grunt of exertion that was near painful, both men took off on unsteady feet, almost bouncing off the walls and each other in their hast. Dodging the rocks and ducking under or jumping over falling bits of the ship being knocked in by bigger and hotter rocks, was a chore that would have been far easier if both were in peak condition.

As it was Harry was the faster but was trying to keep back with Mike, staying at the older man's side and darting quick looks out the passing windows in the hopes of getting a glimpse of the meteors before they came through; no sense in running into one of them and ending their lives prematurely. This tactic did help them see when and where a rock would enter but had the side effect of slowing their progress out of the hall. By the time they reached the door, and Harry was ever so glad it was a door and not a fancy wall, most of the oxygen had leaked out in those few seconds that it took for the shield of some kind to kick in and plug the holes that were made. The life support was obviously failing as no new air was pumping into the hall and the warped klaxon and computer voice were giving off vibes of impending demonic possession.

The door opened at their approach with a soft 'shhk' and both men fell through it gratefully, but didn't stop to see if it would close. Instead, they kept running, getting better at coordination of feet and hands as they rounded a corner into what looked like a cockpit. Four chairs sat empty, two on either side right at the control panel in front of a large observation window and two more toward the back, again on either side but facing sideways into some computer screens that were displaying odd characters, letter and number probably, and a line spearheaded by a dot that was running headlong into a rather large circle. A rather large and hot circle if what Harry could see on the screen matched what the outside was telling him.

There was planet out there as well, but not the same one he saw through the other window in the hallway, so the little planet shape now behind them must the moon of this world, a world that was huge and although it was far enough off to not worry about crashing into it, the large orb that was it's star was not. The sun was the big circle on the computer screen and it was plain to see even without the computer cheerfully drawing a helpful line to their doom, that they would indeed miss passing between the planet and said star by a whole lot. There was no way to get this thing pointed in another direction due to the fact that the little ship picture on the screen was showing their whole tail end and half the middle missing. This meant that even an attempt at steering was not possible and that it was going to get very hot in here with no hope of escaping it.

"No engines or whatever this thing uses to drive with. It's all gone" Harry muttered to his companion.

Mike shook his head at Harry's words and stared in horror at the rapidly approaching star. They had maybe a few hours at this quick speed before they would be close enough to fry or maybe a bit more than that, Harry wasn't sure as his space math wasn't good at all. But Mike didn't seem to care one way or another if it was a few hours or a year, the man turned on his heel and started running back the way they came with a breathless whimper.

Harry swore and darted off after him, shouting as loud as he could over the still blaring alerts.

"It's no use going back, there isn't a hallway left!" Harry shouted at him as he reached out to try and stop the man from going any further.

"There was a small door, I saw it as we passed by!" Mike tossed back over his shoulder, not slowing or stopping until he came upon a small doorway to their left that Harry hadn't noticed in their initial escape through the decorative door from the meteors.

Mike was still in full panic mode when he entered the new area yet still tried to figure out what the controls in this fairly good sized room did. But as Harry followed the other in, both men started when the little door shut behind Harry and a loud hiss filled the room. It was then that the two small chairs became noticeable around the corner about ten feet away, under the newly lit control panel and Mike let out a laugh of disbelief as he ran over to them.

"It's an escape pod! Like Star Trek!" he cried, tears of joy now running down his face as he flopped into one of the chairs, reaching over to pull a still standing Harry into the other next to him once the man had joined him at the panels.

"You know Star Trek?" Harry asked, bewildered. Mike nodded and pointed to a badge that was clipped to his shirt, hidden under his work robes. The badge was an ID of some kind with a picture of Mike and a beautiful blond woman near his age dressed as Q from the episodes of Star Trek when he had humanity on trial.

"My brother, the wife and I would watch it whenever it was on the telly." at Harry's funny look the man smiled widely "Not all Purebloods hate Muggle things, Mr. Potter"

Harry laughed and silently agreed, thinking fondly about the Muggle obsessed Arthur Weasley.

"Just call me Harry, Mr. Potter makes me feel like I'm back at school and I just mucked up royally in Potions." Mike coughed a laugh and smiled. "Never got the pleasure of Snape, had ol' Sluggy meself"

Harry snorted and muttered something about that not being much better. He took a good look at the dashboard like contraption in front of them and frowned. It looked like a horseshoe shaped desk with a large bubble like center where there ought to be a void in a proper horseshoe. The desk part of it was covered in buttons, large empty areas where holographic screens were being projected from small mounted ceiling units, and a couple of color changing squares of some kind of jelly like substance that was about the size of the Monster Book of Monsters. The squares were situated on the ends of the desk before they reached the underside of the view window, one to the right of Harry's chair and one to the left of Mike's, well in reach of each pilot without straining.

The 'bubble' or dome in the center was filled with switches, lights, little dials, a non-holographic screen that was showing the same as the holo ones, and a speaker or two. A few other strange items were scattered on the dome but Harry couldn't even begin to figure out what they could possibly be. There were also two small interesting looking smooth spheres sticking out from under the desk directly in front of each man.

"I don't think it's a pod though. It's too big for that, and the size of the seats rule out it being a big pod for big people." Harry said while Mike continued to try and figure out how to run the vehicle, pushing buttons and flinching every time something outside hit the big ship and caused a tremor to run through their's.

"Probably somebody's private thing, like a motor on a transport, or maybe more like a yacht" Harry suddenly added as he yanked his eyes from the dash and looked behind them into the back of the little ship where he noticed a tiny door to the side, and one in the back that he had again missed in his panic. He really needed to work on looking around better. It looked like the door they came into the ship from was the one on the side across from the panels as Harry had seen Mike messing with those panels when he came in. The back door might be the cargo storage area or the toilet, do they have toilets on something like this?

"Can you fly?" Mike asked, giving up on starting the ship for the moment and turning his head to look at Harry. "I'm only good with a broom for short flights but I've done the simulators for games with flying craft in them...I might could do it but it would help if you could lend a hand." Mike said, pointing at all the dials and buttons that littered the dash and dome in front of them, pulling Harry away from examining from his seat what looked like a bench and a kitchen combo near the side door, obviously it was the corner they had gone around to get up here.

Harry swallowed hard and shook his head, he only knew how to fly brooms and use the arcades in town, though those were more for Star Wars fighter games that had a sort of autopilot on it and you mostly just fired at the enemy. He couldn't actually find time to go to someplace with a flight simulator of any kind either. Yeah if some of the stuff here was like in the movies or games he might be able to help a bit, but Harry figured it was a bit more complicated than that.

"Movies, my good man, I've only ever seen stuff like this on the telly or at the arcades." Harry replied, following Mike's lead in belting into the chair. Mike hesitantly touched the little sphere in front of him and it disengaged from the desk, rising up on a rod to sit at chest level, a door melted into view and slid back on the center and buttons became visible. Mike motioned for Harry to do the same and then take up the new device, what Mike said was a Yoke. The spheres, Yokes, were apparently cleverly hidden - and quite fancy - driving wheels which now had hand rails popping out the sides to grip them properly. Both had funny little buttons and lights on their centers that flashed and pulsed, and no matter what Mike kept calling them as he explained how to use it compared to a car, Harry only refer to them as 'The posh driving wheels'. The arcade games had joysticks so this was a bit different from those games already.

"This is insane" he muttered glaring down at all the lights on the dash behind the driving wheels that were flashing mauve and orange in a worrying way. Mike just huffed in agreement and glanced upward to a spot near one of the projectors. The man tilted his head curiously and reached up to pull a large handle that was hanging above their heads, a graphic next to it depicted a little ship shape with lines above it as if it were falling. With a powerful jolt and a loud thud, the little ship or pod was released from the bigger ship and started drifting away slowly.

"I had hoped that was a release. Would have been bad if all it did was turn on some more, bigger lights." Mike said, tapping a few round, clock looking devices on the center dome of the dash until the needles in a couple of them started ticking. Neither man knew if that was a good sign or not.

As their ship rotated slowly, they could see the larger ship was speeding off in the other direction, heading to a fiery death at the heart of the greenish-brown planet's sun whenever it would finally reach it. Now looking at what was left of it from the outside, Harry could see it looked like a cross between a retro rocket in a 50's sci-fi movie and one of those Imperial Battleships from Star Wars. Most of it was ripped apart and floating freely about in space, bits of chairs, beds and even stuff that looked like it belonged in a kitchen were being blown out of a rather large hole near what was suppose to be the middle, where a big rock must have torn through and ripped it in half.

The rock is probably what caused the ship to head toward the sun in the first place, and the ship being knocked about by bigger rocks constantly certainly wasn't helping with the slowing down bit. The rear of the ship was chasing the rest of it but was spinning madly while the bigger part was going in a mostly stable forward motion.

But the truly horrifying sight was a literal mine field of very still, vaguely humanoid shaped spacesuits. Harry hoped they were all empty and the people had vacated long ago in the other pods or ships that might have been attached, for surely a ship that size would have had more than one.

"Um, I'm not good with this stuff, as I said before, but isn't this thing suppose to move on its own? Like actually go somewhere instead of just hanging here?" tearing his eyes away from the scene outside, Harry posed the question while poking at a few of the formerly mauve, now red, blinking buttons, turning them green and some yellow for his efforts.

"Uh, right...well I can't read whatever this is but I think this is the go button" a soft ding and the button Mike indicated on the lower part of the desk near the floor lit up "...or a self destruct" Mike quipped, pushing the now large purple-ish blue button that had a fire symbol on it that looked suspiciously like a cartoon explosion. The button was nestled between the two seats and above a two lever set up that might have been the 'Go faster/slower please' and the 'Land goddammit' system.

The ship made a whining noise and started to move forward at a reasonable pace, no obvious flames or rumbling frame to indicate that it had an engine at all, but it moved all the same; there were also no explosions. Harry smiled and reached out for the nearest lever and the whine got louder the higher up Harry pushed the "Go faster/slower please" lever, sending the ship into a quick flight that felt like they were flung out of a slingshot. Both men had to turn their wheels sharply to make sure the ship was pointing more toward the planet and not the star the big ship was rushing to.

"Okay, so this is nice?" Mike asked with a shaky laugh, reaching over to take hold of the lever from Harry and pulling it back again to a much slower speed, glancing around the ship's interior in a daze while playing with the wheel to keep the ship heading mostly toward the planet. Now that they didn't have another ship in the way, they could clearly see the two suns, one further off than the other, and the two moons that shared this part of space with the ugly planet they were heading toward.

Neither wizard quite knew what was down there, if there was anything at all, but they couldn't stay in this ship forever and there was no other place in the area that they could go to. Though the closer they got to the planet the more they wished that there was an alternative destination; this world looked very dead. Not even the three and a half bulky spacesuits Harry noticed piled on the bench, and spilling to the floor after their quick start, looked like they could deal with this dreadful sight.

The approaching brown world had a sickly yellow tint to it, like an after glow of neon green mixing with the soft gold of the closest sun beating down on it. It enveloped the whole world in a toxic halo almost appearing to ooze off it into space like some terrible stench made visible. There were no other colors than gray, brown, large areas of black, some pink-ish orange and sickly green. No blue oceans, no white clouds, no tan deserts, no lights...Nothing looked healthy on this planet, everything was a shade of sad that one would expect to find in an area stripped of life.

But it was the feeling that radiated off it that made Harry truly uneasy, a malevolent aura of rage and barely contained fear. The world they were approaching, but nowhere near yet, had an air of desperation about it. Like it was on the verge of something big that would either doom it or be its salvation.

'Though what could be worth saving on it...' Harry thought, keeping his hands in his lap and nervously chewing on his lower lip. A sound caused Harry to tilt his head and glance around outside for any signs that the meteors were nearby, worry racing through him that they were about to run right into a shower of them. Nothing could be seen at all of the shower or the cloud of ship parts that were quite a bit behind them now after that quick burst from the "Go faster/slower please" lever but another sound made the hairs stand on the back of the young wizard's neck; that sounded very like it wasn't outside the craft.

"Stop the ship" Harry commanded suddenly, startling Mike into obeying and the ship stopped quickly without drifting, they were still far enough away from the world that it would probably, judging it's size, be quite a few days at the previous speed before they would hit the atmosphere. The other man looked over at Harry's pale face, still looking out at the planet, and whispered "What?"

Harry shook his head and, licking his lips nervously, un-belted the seat, rising from it with deliberate slowness. He turned to look at the back of the ship they were on and seemed to hold his breath. "What?" Mike asked again, just as softly as before. Harry slowly raised his finger up to his mouth and motioned for Mike to be quiet.

*thump*..*whirrr*...*THUMP!*...*WHIRRR!*...*thump*

Something was moving around at the back of the ship, definitely inside whatever room was behind the rear door and appeared to be moving from the back of that room to the door and back again. Harry pulled out his wand from the inside pocket of his robe and pointed it directly in front of him as he started to advance toward the door. Another thump, this time followed by some rushed scrabbling had Mike following, un-belting himself and whipping his wand into a combat pose long before he was out of the chair. A crackling emitted from the room, computerized in origin and Harry frowned at the noise, it didn't sound like a living thing, then again they were in space, who knew what constituted as life up here. Mike was breathing heavily but his wand was steady and his eyes were narrowed on the door with the kind of sharp focus a Seeker has in a Quidditch match.

Some strange muffled sounds that might have been speech and some more thumping, this time something fell from a good height and scattered on the floor. Some crunching and tinkling meant whatever it used to be it was quite broken now.

By now they were both right up on the door and were mostly holding their breath as a tinny voice sounded from the other side in the same barking language as what was being thrown at them from the computer on the big ship. Harry raised an eyebrow and wondered if they were about to be attacked by whoever owned this ship. Before either man could decide what to do, the door popped open, forcing them both to scramble back into a fight position and and aim down almost to floor level as a small white and red thing rolled out of the new room.

End Chapter two.

**AN:**

Okay, so as my current writing program doesn't tell me how many words I've got, I really don't know if a chapter is longer, the same or shorter than the previous. SO, I'm just gonna post whatever I have of a chapter and just say 'take it as it is', you'll get long ones, short ones and ones that probably would seem like a novel in themselves. I've got a lot written and I'm breaking them up in the best places I can find for chapter starts/ends. I still have to go over them once I've broken them up and fill in gaps, fix words and redo parts I don't think fit anymore. When I wrote this I didn't separate into chapters as I worked, I just wrote and wrote until I couldn't write anymore. It's gonna be a lot of work to get this readable without odd starts and stops in the chapters.

I THINK I may have six chapters out of this thing but I can't say for sure. Won't be writing anything new for it until I've got a few of Rise down. I wanna build up a buffer on both stories so that I can just post a chapter for people to read and still have another ready for later while I write the next one, I'll run out of Rise pre-written chapters before I run out for this one though so yeah, its gonna be busy.

Hope everyone is doing okay with the quarantine and all. I know it's giving me a little bit more writing time but at the same time it's also left me a bit more busy around the house.

As always let me know if something doesn't make sense, I read over these chapters a lot before posting but I can still miss stuff.


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